Europol dismantles big migrant smuggling network in Europe

One of the biggest migrant smuggling networks across the English channel was dismantled with the arrest of 19 people in Germany, including the leader and four main organisers, Europol said on Thursday following a large-scale operation conducted with German, French and Belgian police.
“The investigation focused on an Iraqi-Kurdish network suspected of smuggling Middle Eastern and East African irregular migrants from France to the UK with the use of low quality inflatable boats,” the EU’s law enforcement agency said.
The suspects of the investigation, launched at the end of 2022, organised the purchase, storage and transportation of the inflatable boats, mainly of Chinese origin, that they later used to smuggle migrants from the beaches near the French city of Calais toward the UK.
On average, the gang would put 50 migrants in the boats suited for a maximum of 10 passengers, charging between €1,000-€3,000 ($1,081-$3,242) per migrant, Europol said.
Wave, the operational task force behind the arrests, searched 28 locations in Germany and seized 24 inflatable boats, large amounts of nautical equipment, 60 electronic devices, arms, and several thousand euros in cash.
About 900 German police officers in total were involved in the operation, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said in a separate statement.
Earlier this month, the EU’s Frontex border agency said irregular immigration to the bloc from Western Africa had risen more than 10 times on the year in January.
Frontex said it expects overall arrivals to grow in 2024 and that halting the movement of people completely is impossible.
French officials rescued nearly 140 people over the weekend who got into difficulty while attempting the perilous crossing to Britain.
In one incident on Saturday, five people, including a four-month-old baby, had to be saved from drowning after their boat sank off Boulogne, French officials in the Pas-de-Calais coastal region said.
Most of the people were saved in two major operations.
In one incident, coastguard officials rescued 57 people who had set off from Gravelines late Saturday after their vessel got into difficulty.
And a boat carrying 75 migrants had to be towed back to safety after they sent out a distress call.
At least 27 people died in November 2021 trying to cross the Channel in a dinghy, in one of the worst accidents in the busy sea-lane.
Migrant-smuggling by small boat has been on the up since 2019 and two years later overtook the practice of hiding people in the back of lorries.
“The criminal networks involved in the phenomenon remain extremely active, and are becoming increasingly violent while adapting their activities through the implementation of new crossing techniques,” Europol said.
However, police also upped their own measures which led to a “significant decrease of over 30% fewer incidents and migrants smuggled in 2023 compared to 2022”, it added.
Law agencies pinged almost 61,000 “irregular” migrants attempting to cross the Channel in small boats, compared to 79,000 in 2022.
Last year, some 30,000 migrants and 600 boats reached Britain, Europol said.